


Frozen

by fredbassett



Series: Stephen/Ryan series [111]
Category: Primeval
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 21:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14434545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/pseuds/fredbassett
Summary: There were times when Ryan’s job didn’t go down well with his wife.





	Frozen

“It’s too soon, Tom.” Amanda Ryan fought hard to keep her voice low and even. She didn’t want Vicky to pick up any bad vibes from her parents.

The baby gurgled happily in her cot and held up one hand.

Tom bent down and offered her a finger.

Vicky grabbed hold of it and hung on tight. Amanda tried not to see the gesture as their daughter trying to stop her daddy from going away.

“It’s part of the job, Mandy.”

Amanda did her best not to snort. “Since when has walking to the South Pole been part of the fu….” she caught herself just in time and ended simply with, “….job?”

He shrugged. “My name was down for this before you even got pregnant.”

“Plans change! You’re a father now.”

“We’ve been training for this for two years. I can’t duck out now.”

“Can’t, or won’t? She’s four months old, Tom. You’re going to be away for six months. You won’t even recognise her when you get back. And she won’t recognise you. And what about me?”

“You’ll be with your parents. I’ll be back before you know it.” Tom leaned over the cot and tried to brush his lips lightly across hers.

She turned her head to one side and his kiss landed on her cheek.

*****

She hadn’t kissed him the day he’d left, either.

Ryan huddled in his sleeping bag and tried to ignore the pressure on his bladder. He’d gone for a piss before they turned in for the night, but with the amount of water they had to drink to avoid dehydration, needing another slash was an occupational hazard.

The wind was howling outside, buffeting the tent despite the wall of snow they’d built around them as a windbreak. It was impossible to sleep, but if he didn’t drop off soon, he was going to feel even more like shit tomorrow. Keeping morale up in these conditions was hard, but he could usually keep the team going, even in the roughest of terrains. They had a bad patch coming up tomorrow, with a lot of broken ground to cross. Their skis would be on and off like a whore’s drawers, and manhandling the sledges wouldn’t be easy. But then nothing on the trip had been easy, even though they had made good time so far.

Half an hour later, he gave up the struggle and reached out of the bag for the bottle he’d tucked down by his side. Manoeuvring his cock into the wide-necked bottle wasn’t easy, nor was pissing lying down, but it was something they’d all practised often enough, much to the amusement of their squad mates back in the UK. Ryan relaxed his muscles and finally his bladder started to cooperate. Getting the top on the bottle without spilling his own piss everywhere was another struggle, and an ill-timed elbow in the side from Jakey as the bugger turned over in his sleep and farted like a hog didn’t help, but finally Ryan managed to get the full bottle back out of the sleeping bag.

He kept his glove off long enough to tuck his cock back into his thermals. It was warm in his hand. Warmer than his fingers, anyway, and Ryan kept his hand curled around it for a moment, wondering when he’d last managed to have a wank. When he decided he really couldn’t remember and didn’t much care, Ryan tucked himself away, turned over onto his side and finally managed to fall asleep.

*****

As the minibus pulled up outside the base, an enormous cheer went up from the watching crowd.

There were balloons and streamers everywhere, with WELCOME HOME written on a large banner hung across the outside of one of the buildings. Ryan scanned the faces looking for Mandy. He wasn’t sure whether she would be there or not. On the couple of occasions when he’d managed to talk to her on the satellite phone, the reception he’d got had sometimes been even frostier than the terrain they had to cover every day. Other times had been all right. It probably depended on how much her mother had been winding her up. He knew he’d not been the woman’s ideal choice of son in law. She didn’t waste an opportunity to put the boot in, although for boot read the shiny toe of her patent leather court shoes.

He jumped down the steps and as the crowd shifted, he caught sight of Mandy’s face, Vicky held up in her arms, swaddled in a bright pink jumpsuit, a red woolly hat on her head. Caught up in the moment, Mandy was smiling and yelling with all the others and Ryan felt the hard knot of tension in his stomach start to loosen.

A press microphone was stuffed into his face, and a woman demanded, “What was the walk to the South Pole like, Lieutenant Ryan?”

“A bit chilly,” Ryan said, saying the first thing that came into his head.

The crowd erupted again, and then Mandy was there, holding his daughter out to him.

Ryan took Vicky in his arms and she stared up at him, smiling. He kissed her on the forehead. “Hello, pumpkin.”

Mandy threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth. “Welcome home, Tom.”

That was the picture they used on the front page of the local paper that evening.

*****

“Your dad’s been there,” Amanda Thornton said, passing a bowl of peanuts over to her daughter, as they settled down to watch a repeat of Frozen Planet on the television.

Vicky shot her father a curious look. “You’ve never mentioned it.”

Ryan, sitting on one of the sofas in the Thornton’s living room, his arm slung casually around Stephen’s shoulders, shrugged and said, “Long time ago, pumpkin. You were only a baby at the time.”

Greg, Vicky’s stepfather, grinned. “I bet that went down well.”

“I sulked most of the time he was away,” Amanda admitted.

“Can’t say I blame you,” said Stephen, shooting his partner’s ex-wife a sympathetic look.

Amanda got up and fished a battered album out of a drawer and started looking through the pages. If Ryan was surprised she still had the album, Stephen noticed that he was tactful enough not to mention it.

“Here we go.” She spread the scrapbook out on the table.

The front-page picture of ‘Polar hero, Lieutenant Tom Ryan (24)’ kissing ‘his wife Amanda (22)’ was faded and a little blurry, but there was no mistaking the happiness on their faces. Stephen knew it hadn’t lasted long but now, with their relationship in a very different phase, it was clear they were both caught up in that moment again and could look back without rancour.

Vicky bent over the table and giggled. “Daddy, couldn’t you think of anything better to say than it was a bit chilly? That’s lame. What was it really like?”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’ll put the kettle on. Your daddy can tell you about all the times he had to pee in a bottle”


End file.
